Grooveshark’s 28-Year-Old Co-Founder Discovered Dead in Florida Home

By Moze Halperin

July 20, 2015

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The Gainesville Sun reports that Grooveshark’s co-founder Josh Greenberg was found dead by his girlfriend — who’d just returned from vacation — on Sunday, in his bed in the home the couple shared. The cause of the 28-year-old’s death is still completely unknown, as the entrepreneur’s mother, Lori Greenberg, told the paper that he didn’t have any health issues, and supposedly there was no immediate evidence of foul play, injury, or drugs.

Grooveshark, which Greenberg co-founded with Sam Tarantino in 2006 while at the University of Florida, shuttered in April after the loopholes it used to allow users to upload copyrighted music finally got it in trouble in a lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group. The company had had two offices — its headquarters in Gainesville and a smaller office in New York, and at one point was garnering 40 million users monthly.

Greenberg’s mother stated, however, that the decision to end the once-thriving business didn’t lead her son into a depression, as he was actually “more relieved…since it ended the lawsuit that had been hanging over his head.” Rather, she said, “He was excited about potential new things that he was going to start.”

An autopsy is being performed today, and will pretty quickly reveal if there was anything wrong with Greenberg’s heart or brain, but toxicology results won’t be in for another couple of months. A memorial is currently being arranged in Gainesville.